this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2024
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Someone help me understand the feature to lock a game to the cartridge - does this mean it copies the game data into the SNES cartridge so you don’t need the GameBoy cart anymore? If so, this could give Nintendo’s lawyers enough power to shut this project down, which would be very sad
Is it illegal to rip a game that you own onto a device that you own? My understanding is that's 100% legal, not gray area at all. The only issue would be if you distributed it.
Your understanding is incorrect if copying involves circumventing encryption or other means of protecting the data. That said, it's not an issue for the Game Boy or Super NES.
17 U.S. Code § 1201 - Circumvention of copyright protection systems
Well that's interesting. It does say the law won't override fair use. But I assume it blocks it regardless.
These games were not stored with encryption, don't you worry
That’s what I’m getting at, Nintendo only needs the argument “this could be used to rip a game onto the cartridge, then distribute it” and US courts will bend over and grant them the DMCA strike
This argument would outlaw a USB flash drive, "Your Honor, this device can store the contents of this 30 old game, it needs to be outlawed to protect all intellectual property"
So you're saying, because it would rip straight to another cartridge, it could be argued it's streamlining distribution?
I would hope that a court would see through that argument. There's a pretty good track record of allowing personal use of personal property. But I wouldn't be surprised either if they convinced a court that this was explicitly for distribution purposes.
No, it doesn't copy the game data in the way you're describing, anymore than a Game Genie would (it doesn't either).
And anyway, this Nintendo lawyer fear is getting a little ridiculous in this community. ROM dumping for this kind of data is legal, at least in the United States.